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Transcript 6/20/20:
A hummingbird whizzes by my head, a bee systematically visits flower after flower, two hares chase each other around the scruffy edge of the woods. Why the rush? Welcome to The Nature of Phenology where we share the cycles and seasons of the outdoors. I’m your host, Hazel Stark, and this episode was written by Joe Horn.
Walking around New England is always a stroll through history, and much of our landscape’s past can be discerned by present day observations. A chunky stone wall bisecting a forest is often a sign of old pastureland. A massively out of place oak or pine tree with gigantic sprawling limbs, called a wolf tree, among younger more slender trees also betrays pastoral past. Hummocky forest floors where all the mounds and depressions are oriented in the same direction can tell of hurricanes. And what walk through the springy New England woods would be complete without stumbling upon an old cellar hole ringed with apple trees, dotted with daffodils, and highlighted with lilacs—illuminating the toils and joys of those forgotten homesteads. And so it is in late June in our area when I think I have glimpsed one such clue of land use history only to be reminded that the stunning native purple flower blooming now is no relic of a bygone farm, even though its beauty seems befitting of intentional plantings: blue flag iris.
Blue flag irises are actually a collection of species all native all over the continental United States, Alaska, and Canada with the exception of the desert southwest. Even here in Maine, what is typically called blue flag iris is actually a couple of species such as Iris versicolor and the ever so rare Iris prismatica.
What unite all these irises are their stunning inflorescences. These flowers range from blue to purple and stand atop a flower spike which rises two and a half feet out of clumps of flat, lance-shaped leaves. The silhouette of the flower is a classic fleur-de-lis and brings to mind the flag of Quebec—a province in which the blue flag iris also happens to be native, but whose provincial symbol has cultural roots in France, where the sweet iris, a native of Croatia, is widely planted and held in high symbolic esteem.
Our blue flag irises are plants of wet places, so are often found in soggy patches of meadows and fields, marshes, swamps, ditches, and shorelines. While the flowers do produce seeds, these irises are known for their ability to form colonial mats which spread horizontally from underground stems, called rhizomes—much like those spicy hands of ginger you can find in the grocery store.
Fun facts about the name of this lovely native flower: The “flag” in blue flag has its roots (pun intended) in the Middle English “Flagge” meaning rush, a spiky grass-like plant which also is found in similar habitats to our irises. Also the genus name “Iris” is the Greek goddess of the rainbow—a fitting name for such a colorful blossom.
So this weekend, you could hop in a canoe or take off by foot to explore a local pond, lake, bog, or swamp in search of these early summer beauties. While it might be tempting to take a flower or two for a vase, you might instead take a picture and leave the flower behind to grow where you find it so it can be appreciated by bees and fellow explorers alike.
You can download this episode and find a link to the transcript, photos, information about podcasting and more by visiting archives.weru.org. Have a nature question that you want us to answer in our show? Simply reach out to us! Theme music was by a pileated woodpecker, made available by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Thanks for listening and please join us next week for another dive into The Nature of Phenology.
References:
Iris versicolor. (n.d.). Retrieved May 27, 2020, from http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?taxonid=281141
Iris prismatica Pursh ex Ker-Gawl. (n.d.). Retrieved May 27, 2020, from https://www.maine.gov/dacf/mnap/features/iripri.htm
Our Native Irises: Blue Flag Irises. (n.d.). Retrieved May 27, 2020, from https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/beauty/iris/Blue_Flag/index.shtml
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